Categories: Car News

Car manufacturers are really pulling out the stops for this year's Super Bowl. We've seen big contests, major giveaways, advertisements for advertisements and now the return of a legendary movie character we haven't seen in more than 25 years. One of the greatest movie characters of the 80s is back...to advertise Hondas.

A short teaser clip featuring Matthew Broderick - the actor that played Ferris Bueller for those that aren't up on 80s trivia - hit the Web on Thursday. The YouTube description says simply: "We hate to be such a tease, but on a day like today, we just have to. Stick it out until the Super Bowl, or take a "day off" on Monday and catch the big reveal." The teaser was posted by 'chukachuka2012' as in chuka...cchhhukkaaa with no solid evidence of what it was all about.

Chevy is really banking on this year's Super Bowl. Not only did it run the Route 66 contest to determine its Super Bowl commercial, now it has a new contest for viewers. Similar to the TweetDrive game that Lexus ran during the playoffs, Chevy's GameTime is a Twitter-based trivia game. Not so similar to the Lexus game, Chevy will give away 20 vehicles to lucky winners.

The GameTime app is available for free download from the App store, Android App Market and over the Web at Chevy.com/gametime. The minute that you download the app, you have the chance to win instantly. You'll also be assigned a license plate number, and if it shows up during Chevy's Super Bowl ad, you'll win one of the 20 vehicles.

Hot off the presses, Consumer Reports has discovered that the gap of automaker brand perception is shrinking. The 2012 Car-Brand Perception Survey, conducted at the Consumer Reports National Research Center, randomly polled 2,045 adults across the country and uncovered some shocking results: specifically that brand leaders no longer stand out like they used to.

And while the nation’s top 10 favorites include an ever-decreasing margin of favor, some folks might also be a bit surprised to see their beloved Jeep as the 8th worst perceived automaker polled.

“Dramatic events in the automotive industry seem to be affecting how consumers view auto brands,” said Jeff Bartlett, Consumer Reports’ deputy editor for autos online. “It is harder for a single brand to stand out among the competitive field. Many brands are starting to get strong in the qualities we are asking about.”

The Chevy Volt may not have been the biggest product flop of 2011, but it wasn't exactly a runaway success either. GM fell about 2,400 units short of its original 10,000 goal, and the Volt was the subject of some seriously bad publicity in the form of a battery fire and NHTSA investigation. As Chevy moves on to year 2 of the Volt, it has a new problem on its hands: Its own network of dealers don't want to stock it.

According to Automotive News, GM is having trouble distributing Volts to dealers around the country. A GM spokesperson blamed the down orders on the ongoing NHTSA investigation, but some of the admissions from dealers indicate a deeper problem.

Super Bowl advertising might just be getting out of hand when we start seeing ads for ads. Commercials are, after all, nothing more than thinly veiled vehicles for picking our pockets by way of manipulating our minds. Should we really be getting this excited about them?

In Volkswagen's case, the excitement is somewhat warranted. Last year's "The Force" commercial was largely hailed as one of the best ads of the big game. So everyone's either rooting for or against VW in its attempt to follow that commercial up this year. So far, VW isn't disappointing, unveiling a creative teaser for this year's Super Bowl ad.

The Nissan GT-R has long been a world leader in performance-price ratio. While it remains so in its latest form, the price is slipping ever closer to six figures. Godzilla's appetite for power and performance grows, and consumers pay the price.

The redesigned 2012 GT-R received its first major power increase since the model launched. Power spiked to 530 hp from around 485 hp. Just a year later, Nissan found fit to boost the power once again, this time to 545 hp. Torque also receives a lift from 448 to 463 lb.-ft.

That power boost helps provide some notable improvements to the GT-R's performance. The 2013 model breaks the 3.0-second to 60 mph mark, boasting a 2.7-second time. The 2012 model took 3.1 seconds to reach 60 mph. The 2013 GT-R is also expected to lap the 'Ring a little faster - around 7:20.

If you happened to watch the NFC championship game between the Giants and 49ers on Sunday, you may have noticed that it watched a little like the Super Bowl. And we're not just talking all-out on-the-field action ending in a game-winning field goal in overtime, but also the new, elaborate commercials that had the feel of Super Bowl ads. One of those ads - "Chevy Happy Grad" - is the winner of GM's Super Bowl ad contest.

The commercial was submitted by Zach Borst, a 26-year-old aspiring filmmaker from Long Island. It took home the top spot in the Route 66 contest.

The commercial depicts a young guy on graduation day who comes outside to see his graduation present. He totally misses the mini-fridge with a bow on it that his father is standing next to, believing that the neighbor's bright-yellow Chevy Camaro Convertible is his gift.

After bursting onto the scene at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show followed by ensuing rumors and reports about production and price, the Porsche 918 Spyder has been on an extended headline hiatus. Until now. A new report about the car's launch and production design has updated what we know about Porsche's hybrid supercar.

Unlike all the speculation and rumors that go on when it comes to a high-profile supercar in the vein of the 918, this one comes directly from Porsche by way of its in-house Christophorus Magazine. We can therefore take it as a "yes" rather than a "maybe."

Last year, a year in which Daimler said that it would be discontinuing the Maybach brand, the ultra-premium brand barely broke 200 sales. Lest you think that economic conditions had something to do with it, Rolls Royce set a yearly sales record with 3,538 models, a 31 percent increase over 2010 sales. Bentley had an equally successful year, experiencing a 37 percent sales increase to 7,003 sales overall. Though Maybach may not have many customers to offer, Rolls Royce and Bentley are hopeful that former Maybach customers will move over to their respective offerings.

In November of last year, Mercedes announced that it would wind Maybach down by 2013. Not surprisingly, that has motivated one of Maybach's main competitors to hit the mailbox and telephones in order to drum up business.

Though Maybach's paltry customer totals don't make for a huge business opportunity, they definitely give Rolls and Bentley an opportunity to advance their footprints. Bentley has been particularly proactive in reaching out to Maybach's customer list. According to Reuters, the Crewe crew has begun contacting Maybach owners to set up VIP tours of Bentley's headquarters.

Hyundai executives recently said that the automaker is in the midst of an image turnaround from "value brand" to "valuable brand." Its customers are increasingly willing to pay closer to sticker price for Hyundai vehicles, a fact that indicates that customers want Hyundai cars not just a good deal.

If you're still having trouble shaking the old school-Hyundai image of cheap, unreliable junk, you might think that a lot of those customers come to regret their decisions. Not so, according to a new study by J.D. Power and Associates that puts Hyundai at the very top of the list.

Losing your 11-year title sure has a way of firing you up. After slipping from its stronghold as the number 1 luxury retailer in the US--all the way down to number 3--Lexus is more determined than ever to have a big year. The automaker is planning on growing its US sales by at least 20 percent. It is also kicking off early 2012 with its first-ever Super Bowl commercial.

New products really aren't much good if no one knows they exist. And why not reach out to the country's largest television audience and let them know what's going on at your brand. That appears to be what Lexus will do when it launches its first Super Bowl commercial during Super Bowl XLVI on February 5.